Counselling Skills

Counselling is an activity between persons which usually consist of the counsellor and the client which is in the form of conversation. Counselling is vast as the client involved can talk about anything and everything (McLeod, 2013). It can be present issue or past issue faced by the client which he or she could not resolve (McLeod, 2013). In counselling, the client will speak of the issues and problems that he or she is facing while the counsellor listens (McLeod, 2013). It is an ongoing relationship building between the counsellor and the client which involves in the telling and listening (McLeod, 2013), knowing and being known as well as also reflecting and acting (McLeod, 2013). Counselling acts as an arena for support, reflection and renewal …show more content…
Questioning skills varies from open ended, funnelling, probing and leading (Nelson-Jones, 2005). Questions asked by the counsellor will help the counsellor get more information on the issue faced by the client (Nelson-Jones, 2005). By asking the correct question at the right time, the counsellor will be able to get further depth into the client issue (Nelson-Jones, 2005). The counsellor will then be able to ascertain the root cause of the client issue (Nelson-Jones, 2005). Questioning will also help the counsellor understand the client behaviour and feeling (Nelson-Jones, 2005). Questioning could also lead the client to think further and in more depth into the issue the client is facing. Questioning should be done in a natural flow in order to avoid the client from feeling being interrogated or threatened (Nelson-Jones, 2005). In order to have good questioning skills, the counsellor need to have good active listening skills as well as good empathic responding …show more content…
In active listening I faced the following issues. (Refer to serial number 5, 9 and 19). In serial number 5, I asked the client the question while frowning. I got agitated when the client did not give the answer that I wanted to hear from the client. Even though I did not understand how the client was feeling I should not have responded in such a manner. Instead I should have been neutral in both my tone of voice and the facial expressions I presented when I was asking the question. As a result of which, the client will then get the feeling that I am not judging her or being biased against her. In serial number 9, I was not able to capture the true essence of what the client had said as I was overwhelmed by the various issues brought up by the client within the one sentence. The information was too much for me to handle and process at that given point of time. Due to that I ended up missing out some of the issues mentioned by the client and the client had to repeat what she had said earlier. Active listening requires practice and as a counsellor I need to be interested and sincere in order to fully understand how the client was feeling at the point of the conversation. I also need to stop the client from talking and rephrase whenever possible to ensure that I understand the client which I had failed to do. This will allow the client to flow through their story and display true